Agriculture of Norlli J J "ales. 
555 
works, both of coal and iron, being situate within the limits of 
the boundaries described, and the general features of the country 
are similar to those surrounding other coal districts in various 
parts of England. I may however remark, that the soil is gene- 
rally of a more free-working nature than is usually incumbent on 
the coal-measures. The most superficial observer will speedily 
discover that the soil on the left bank of the Dee (Wales) is of a 
much more friable nature than that on the right bank (Cheshire) ; 
this is attributable to the fact of a greater amount of silica (sand) 
being disseminated amongst the soil on the left bank, also in 
some instances to the additional ameliorating circumstance of 
calcareous matters being present, washed from the limestone hills 
which form its western boundary. Although the soil under con- 
sideration is called "stiff" in Wales, it is by no means to be 
understood as anything like so stiff as the strong clay lands of 
England ; it is most properly classed by Mr. Davies in his 
report amongst strong loams. A few miles beyond Mold to the 
northward, this valley narrows very much until it reaches a little 
above Flint, when the land gradually rises, and continues to rise 
to the north-east extremity of Flintshire, forming from Mostyn to 
the point alluded to a narrow band of fertile land, rising some- 
what suddenly from, and continuing parallel to, the borders of 
the estuary of the Dee towards its junction with the Irish Sea. 
A similar soil adjoins this, being a very narrow strip of land, 
which continues along the whole northern coast of Flintshire 
untd it ]oins the vale of Clwyd, which latter rests upon the new 
red-sandstone, generally highly impregnated with peroxide of iron. 
The eastern side of the vale of Clwyd is bounded by a series of 
high hills of the upper silurian series, some of which, such as- 
Mori Famma, can be seen at a very great distance in. Lan- 
cashire ; on the eastern side of these mountains abut the lime- 
rocks of Flintshire, as previously observed ; the same lime-rocks 
crop out also in seven or eight places at the western base, inter- 
vening between the silurian formation and the sandstone of the 
vale ; the western border of the vale is bounded by a series of 
limestone rocks extending from Cricor Mawr in the south to 
beyond Abergele in the north-west. The soil of the vale of 
Clwyd is somewhat similar to that described as stretching from 
Chirk to Mold, and from the limestone hills of the west to the 
banks of the Dee on the east, which district, for the sake of 
perspicuity, I shall in future term the vale of Wrexham, which 
occupies the greater part of Flintshire and a large section of the 
southern portion of Denbighshire. The vale of Clwyd differs 
from the vale of Wrexham in its land not being quite so adhesive, 
mainly from an abundance of peroxide of iron in the soil. The 
upper part of the vale of Clwyd, commencing a little above 
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